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Tuesday, February 26, 2013

I have a deep affection for mid 1960s French Canadian garage rock, but will readily admit that lots of it tends to get kind of sappy. Montreal's les Miserables are one of the notable exceptions. Their rare 1966 LP is one of the crown jewels of the genre ...

Monday, February 25, 2013

This group was very well-known as one of the top local bands during the early 1960s. They are significant in rock music history as the line-up was to include two of the most famous Birmingham musicians of the 1960's and 70's, namely Roy Wood and Jeff Lynne.

Mike Tyler started his music career at a young age by singing and playing piano at a pub in Kings Heath. After entering and winning a local talent contest, he was asked to join 'Billy King and the Nightriders' which he did after changing his stage name to 'Sheridan'. The group attracted a large local following and after various personnel changes, Mike Sheridan became the lead singer and frontman. The Nightriders also included lead guitarist Alan 'Big Al' Johnson who was manager of Burton's tailors on Corporation Street and guitarist Dave Pritchard - formerly from a group called 'The Planets'. Roger Spencer who was from Castle Bromwich, had previously played drums in a band called 'The Hound Dogs'. Bass guitarist at the time was Brian Cope. Mike Sheridan and The Nightriders soon established a reputation around Birmingham as one of the most accomplished bands on the scene at that time. ~ http://www.brumbeat.net/ntrdrs.htm

Mars Bonfire's late-'60s material occasionally bears some resemblance to Steppenwolf, particularly in the use of heavy organs. But in fact this is certainly on the lighter and more pop-flecked side than Steppenwolf, which might both disappointment Steppenwolf fans who seek this out on the basis of the "Born to Be Wild" connection, and make this LP a rather pleasant surprise to those fearing bombastic late-'60s hard rock on the order of Steppenwolf's less impressive aspects. There is a version of "Born to Be Wild" here that is far tamer and less effective than Steppenwolf's hit cover. Yet on about half the album Bonfire favors a pretty airy pop-psychedelic approach (reminiscent of his "Tomorrow's Ship" composition on the single for pre-Steppenwolf outfit the Sparrow, written under his real name of Dennis Edmonton) to both his songwriting and arrangements. Bonfire has a thin, crackly voice that lacks force and precluded any significant success as a solo singer and band frontman, but does have a sincere and likable quality in spite of its limitations. "Lady Moon Walker" in particular is an overlooked psych-pop gem, with Bonfire's best deployment of attractive melodies, spacy lyrics, and pleasing keyboard textures. "In Christina's Arms" and "Sad Eyes" are also neat-o tender love songs with just enough unexpected melodic changes and oh-so-slightly trippy lyrics to make them more intriguing than the usual decent late-'60s pop/rock tune. When Bonfire tries to rock harder and get a little bluesy, the music becomes undistinguished, and sometimes downright boring. The good half of the album make this a worthwhile find, though, and it's worthy of CD reissue (along with "Little Girl Lost" and "Time to Fly," non-LP cuts from the era). Sure it's obscure, but that hasn't stopped Columbia from reissuing lots of other commercially unsuccessful '60s stiffs from its vaults.

Saturday, February 23, 2013

Chicago's New Colony Six originally emerged as a tough, British Invasion-styled outfit prominently featuring Farfisa organ and a novel (at the time) Leslie guitar. Scoring a huge local hit with "I Confess," their early recordings -- exemplified by their 1966 debut album, Breakthrough -- featured first-class original material that gave the sound of Them and the Yardbirds a more commercial, American garage-based, vocal harmony approach. The rest of the '60s saw the band gradually abandoning its roots for middle-of-the-road pop with horns and strings. Continuing to rack up major local hits and minor national ones, they finally cracked the U.S. Top 30 with "Love You So Much" (1968) and "Things I'd Like to Say" (1969).

The New Colony Six started out as one of the better garage bands to come out of the Midwest in the mid-'60s, playing tough British Invasion-style rock & roll (their "At the River's Edge" made it onto the Nuggets box set), and they later evolved into a surprisingly sophisticated and skillful pop group that scored nationwide hits with the singles "Love You So Much" and "Things I'd Like to Say." However, this collection of odds and ends doesn't quite play to either side of the band's personality; in fact, most of the 24 songs aren't actually by The New Colony Six, with 11 tunes by the Raymond John Michael Band (which featured three NC6 alumni, singer Ray Graffia, drummer Chick James, and keyboard man Craig Kemp) and one each by Junior and Graffia, both latter-day Ray Graffia projects. The compilers also present a number of tracks in multiple versions, which gets a bit tiring; "The Power of Love," "Accept My Ring," and "Rap-A-Tap" by The New Colony Six all appear twice, while there are two different takes of "Hitch-Hiker" by the Raymond John Michael Band, and their cover of Terry Reid's "Rich Kid Blues" shows up no less than three times. Given the plentiful supply of alternate takes and recordings by post-New Colony Six acts, Sides is clearly for hardcore NC6 fans only, but that's not to say they won't enjoy this collection; there's a charging live recording of the New Colony Six rarity "The Time Is Right," "Come and Give Your Love to Me" is a fine high-attitude rocker, most of the Raymond John Michael Band material sounds like a solid if slightly over-polished variation on the latter-day NC6, "Bobby and Georgia" and "Gwendolyn" are witty novelty numbers, and Graffia's "Sides" is an admirably ballsy hard rock number. In short, if you're looking for The New Colony Six's greatest hits, steer clear of Sides, but if you're a committed fan looking for some choice rarities, you'll find them on this collection.

As the lead singer of the Zombies, Blunstone was one of the greatest '60s rock vocalists, pacing the group's minor-key masterpieces with his inimitable choked and breathy vocals. After retiring from the business briefly in the late '60s (to work in the insurance industry, of all things), he went solo in the early '70s with a string of interesting pop/rock albums that were more of an extension of the late Zombies sound than the more well-known work of Argent, the other Zombies spin-off act. the Zombies connection is hardly incidental; chief Zombie songwriters Rod Argent and Chris White gave Blunstone some songs, as did Argent member Russ Ballard, though Blunstone penned much of his material himself. With their moody melodies and Baroque touches of muted keyboards, classical guitars, and inventive string arrangements, his early-'70s albums sometimes sounded like a mellower take on the direction the Zombies pursued with their pop-psychedelic masterwork Odessey and Oracle. Blunstone managed some small British hits with "How Could We Dare Be Wrong," "I Don't Believe in Miracles," and the Top 20 single "Say You Don't Mind," a cover of a tune written and recorded by Denny Laine after he left the Moody Blues and before he joined Wings. Blunstone's first album, One Year (1971), was his best, though the follow-ups Ennismore and Journey also had their moments.

After the Zombies split in 1968, Colin Blunstone opted for the security of a 9-to-5 job and took a position with a London insurance company. However, the posthumous success of the Zombies' "Time of the Season" made a return to the music business almost inevitable. Blunstone accepted an offer from producer Mike Hurst to cut a remake of the group's first hit, "She's Not There" for Deram Records. Released under the pseudonym "Neil MacArthur," the record was a hit and two further MacArthur singles followed in 1969. Neither charted, and Blunstone soon decided to start recording under his own name. He ran into ex-Zombies Rod Argent and Chris White, who had just signed a production deal with Epic Records. The duo were eager to produce their former bandmate, and soon Blunstone was preparing his first album for Epic. Recorded between June 1970 and June 1971, the album was titled One Year (for the length of time spent making it). The initial sessions found Blunstone backed by Argent's new group, Argent, but later sessions saw the singer backed by Chris Gunning's lovely string arrangements. The first singles, "Mary Won't You Warm My Bed" and "Caroline Goodbye," flopped, but the third -- a cover of Denny Laine's "Say You Don't Mind" -- was a hit in Britain. Widely considered to be Blunstone's best solo album, One Year is the perfect showcase for his distinctive, breathy voice. He also came into his own as a songwriter on this record. Although he had penned only two songs during the Zombies' career, he was responsible for most of the songwriting on One Year, including such classics as "Caroline Goodbye" and "Let Me Come Closer to You."

Thursday, February 21, 2013

is one of rock's oddest and more likable enigmas, even if often he's seemed not to operate at his highest potential. Perhaps that's because he's never seemed to have taken his music too seriously -- one of his essential charms and most aggravating limitations. Since the late '60s, he's released many albums with a distinctly British sensibility, making ordinary lyrical subjects seem extraordinary with his rich low vocals, inventive wordplay, and bemused, relaxed attitude. Apt to flavor his songs with female backup choruses and exotic island rhythms, the singer/songwriter inspires the image of a sort of progressive rock beach bum, writing about life's absurdities with a celebratory, relaxed detachment. Yet he is also one of progressive rock's more important (and more humane) innovators, helping to launch the Soft Machine as their original bassist, and working with noted European progressive musicians like Mike Oldfield, Lol Coxhill, and Steve Hillage.

Ayers cultivated a taste for the bohemian lifestyle early, spending much of his childhood in Majorca before he moved with his mother to Canterbury in the early '60s. There he fell in with the town's fermenting underground scene, which included future members of the Soft Machine and Caravan. For a while he sang with the Wilde Flowers, a group that also included future Softs Robert Wyatt and Hugh Hopper. He left in 1965, met fellow freak Daevid Allen in Majorca, and returned to the U.K. in 1966 to found the first lineup of the Soft Machine with Allen, Wyatt, and Mike Ratledge.

Wyatt is usually regarded as the prime mover behind the Soft Machine, but Ayers' contributions carried equal weight in the early days. Besides playing bass, he wrote and sang much of their material. He can be heard on their 1967 demos and their 1968 debut album, but by the end of 1968 he felt burned out and quit. Selling his bass to Mitch Mitchell of the Jimi Hendrix Experience, he began to write songs on guitar, leading to a contract with Harvest in 1969. His relationship with his ex-Soft Machine mates remained amiable; in fact, Wyatt and Ratledge (as well as Ayers' replacement, Hugh Hopper) guested on Ayers' 1969 debut.

Ayers' solo material reflected a folkier, lazier, and gentler bent than the Soft Machine. In some respects he was comparable to Syd Barrett, without the madness -- and without the ferocious heights of Barrett's most innovative work. Ayers was never less than enjoyable and original, though his albums were erratic right from the start, veering from singalong ditties and pleasant, frothy folk ballads to dissonant improvisation. The more ambitious progressive rock elements came to the forefront when he fronted the Whole World in the early '70s. The backing band included a teenage Mike Oldfield on guitar, Lol Coxhill on sax, and David Bedford on piano. But Ayers only released one album with them before they dissolved.

Ayers continued to release albums in a poppier vein throughout the '70s, at a regular pace. As some critics have noted, this dependable output formed an ironic counterpoint to much of his lyrics, which often celebrated a life of leisure, or even laziness. That lazy charm was often a dominant feature of his records, although Ayers always kept things interesting with offbeat arrangements, occasionally singing in foreign tongues, and flavoring his production with unusual instruments and world music rhythms. He (or Harvest) never gave up on the singles market, and indeed his best early-'70s efforts in that direction were accessible enough to have been hits with a little more push. Or a little less weirdness. Even Ayers at his most accessible and direct wasn't mainstream, a virtue that endeared him to his loyal cult.

That cult was limited to the rock underground, and Ayers logically concentrated on the album market throughout the 1970s. Almost always pleasant, eccentric, and catchy, these nonetheless started to sound like a cul-de-sac by the mid-'70s. Ayers pressed on without changing his approach, despite the dwindling audience for progressive rock and the oncoming train of punk and new wave. He only recorded sporadically after 1980, though he remained active in the early 1990s, mostly on the European continent. The 2007 release The Unfairground was first 21st Century release.

Wednesday, February 20, 2013

Ann-Margret's RCA Victor debut album, And Here She Is..., didn't get much attention in 1961, but she did better with her bluesy single "I Just Don't Understand," which peaked in the Top 20 in September. That set up this, her second solo LP, which featured "I Just Don't Understand," and like it was recorded partially in Nashville under the aegis of Chet Atkins and Dick Pierce. The two naturally brought a slight country feel to some of the tracks, notably the remakes of Don Gibson's 1958 hit "Oh, Lonesome Me" and the 1960-1961 hit "My Last Date (With You)" (aka "Last Date"). But the closest approximation of the sound was the kind of country-inflected pop/rock being pursued by Elvis Presley around the same time, which made a rendition of Presley's first major hit, "Heartbreak Hotel," an appropriate choice. At 20, Ann-Margret was an effective singer, if something of a chameleon, seeming to adopt a different persona for each number. She was at her most seductive singing Otis Blackwell's "Slowly," and she came on like a Latin fireball on "Fever," but was demure on the singles-chart entry "What Am I Supposed to Do" and ingenuously winning on "Moon River." RCA Victor appears to have been hoping it had found a distaff Presley, and it's possible Ann-Margret might have justified such a hope if her film acting career hadn't quickly outpaced her recording career; by the time this album was released, her movie debut, Pocketful of Miracles, had been out for several months and State Fair, which would establish her as a redheaded bombshell, was just getting into theaters. (She was still a mousy brunette on the album cover.) On the Way Up was an appropriate title, but records would soon take a back seat to other career goals.

Friday, February 15, 2013

Actress, singer, and dancer Ann-Margret excelled in two areas of entertainment during a career that was still going strong in its fifth decade: as a movie star, she appeared in more than 50 feature films and as a stage entertainer she performed as a headlining act in showrooms and theaters around the world. To a lesser extent, she found time periodically for television and recordings. Early in her career, emphasis was placed on her attractiveness and sexual appeal; she was marketed as a kind of red-haired American version of Brigitte Bardot. But her talent allowed her to outlive that image, and eventually, while working regularly, she earned Academy, Emmy, and Grammy Award nominations, as well as several Golden Globes in recognition of her film and TV roles.

Swedish-born Ann-Margret Olsson was the only child of Gustav Olsson and Anna (Aronsson) Olsson. Her father, an electrician, had lived in the U.S. for many years, and when she was a year old he moved back to America where he found work in the suburbs of Chicago and saved up to bring his wife and child over. Meanwhile, Ann-Margret began displaying an interest in singing and dancing from the age of three. She and her mother finally arrived in the U.S. in 1946, settling in Fox Lake, IL. There, Ann-Margret took singing, dancing, and piano lessons as a child; she became a naturalized American citizen in 1949. In the summer of 1957, while competing in a TV talent contest in Chicago, she was seen by Ted Mack, host of the national series The Original Amateur Hour, who put her on the show. Later that summer, she spent a month singing with the Danny Ferguson band at the Muehlebach Hotel in Kansas City. Her first recording came in January 1959. It was an amateur effort, an album made of a show put on by the Tri-Ship Club at New Trier High School and released on a limited basis, Lagniappe '59 Presents "Be My Guest"; she was heard singing Irving Berlin's "Heat Wave."

Ann-Margret graduated from high school in the spring of 1959 and entered Northwestern University that fall, majoring in speech with a minor in drama. She and two classmates joined with a Northwestern graduate to form a group called the Suttletones that appeared in clubs around Chicago on the weekends. The second recording with which she was associated was another amateur school effort, Among Friends -- Waa-Mu Show of 1960, a collector's item even though she only appeared as a dancer in the production and was not featured. After finishing her freshman year in June 1960, she and the Suttletones went to Las Vegas for a club engagement that fell through, then continued to Los Angeles, where they found bookings. At the end of the summer, she dropped out of college to pursue her career, while her fellow students returned to school. She earned her first recording contract with Warner Bros. Records, which released two singles and an album, It's the Most Happy Sound, billed to Ann-Margret & the Ja-Da Quartet. But the records didn't sell. She was appearing in a lounge at the Dunes Hotel in Las Vegas when she auditioned for comedian George Burns, who added her to his Christmas show at the Sahara. The attention she received led to a record contract with RCA Victor and a film contract with 20th Century-Fox, which promptly loaned her out to Paramount for her first movie, Pocketful of Miracles, director Frank Capra's remake of his 1934 movie Lady for a Day, starring Bette Davis.

Ann-Margret's first RCA single, "Lost Love," did not chart. She followed with "I Just Don't Understand," a bluesy, rocking number co-produced by Chet Atkins and featuring Elvis Presley's backup singers, the Jordanaires, that entered the Billboard Hot 100 in July 1961 and rose into the Top 20. Her first RCA album, And Here She Is...Ann-Margret, was released in October. A third single, "It Do Me So Good," barely reached the charts in November. The same month, Pocketful of Miracles opened, earning her good notices, and she won the Golden Globe Award for New Star of the Year -- Female. RCA had her record a variety of pop, country, and rock for her next LP, On the Way Up. The set, released in March 1962, included her versions of such differing material as the pop song "Moon River" and Presley's blues-rock standard "Heartbreak Hotel," as well as the lush ballad "What Am I Supposed to Do," which spent five weeks near the bottom of the Hot 100 and made the easy listening charts. Also in March 1962 came her second film, a remake of the musical version of State Fair, also featuring Pat Boone and Bobby Darin. Here, she got to put on film for the first time her singing and dancing abilities as well as sexy appeal, performing a revved-up version of Rodgers & Hammerstein's "Isn't It Kinda Fun?" and a duet with Boone on the newly written Rodgers ballad "Willing and Eager." The soundtrack album reached the Top 20.

On April 9, 1962, Ann-Margret appeared on the Academy Awards telecast to sing one of the year's nominated songs, the title theme from Bachelor in Paradise. Her torrid song-and-dance routine stopped the show and increased her stardom exponentially. RCA tried to take advantage of that notoriety by sending her back to the studio and titling the resulting album The Vivacious One, but the record was not successful. She had more luck on the silver screen, where she was cast in the film adaptation of the stage musical Bye Bye Birdie, a send-up of Elvis Presley, in which she played a Midwestern teenager who wins the chance to bestow "one last kiss" on a Presley-like teen idol before he goes into the Army. Her part was built up considerably from what it had been on Broadway, as she opened and closed the film singing a newly written title song, had another solo on "How Lovely to Be a Woman," and joined other cast members on half a dozen other songs. "Ann-Margret...is a wow," wrote Variety, and when Bye Bye Birdie opened in April 1963, it was a hit, its soundtrack album peaking at number two and remaining in the charts over a year. She earned a Golden Globe nomination for Best Actress -- Musical or Comedy.

Despite her success in movie musicals, Ann-Margret was not able to translate that popularity into her solo records. In the fall of 1963, RCA released Bachelors' Paradise, belatedly trying to take advantage of her Academy Awards moment a year and a half earlier, but the album failed to chart. Meanwhile, she was achieving a kind of immortality by voicing the character of Ann-Margrock on the popular prime-time animated TV series The Flintstones. In January 1964, RCA managed to get her back into the Top 100 on the LP charts by pairing her with trumpeter Al Hirt on the LP Beauty and the Beard. Having worked with an Elvis Presley imitator in Bye Bye Birdie, she next teamed up with the real thing, co-starring in the Presley film Viva Las Vegas, which opened in May 1964. She also sang several songs, soloing on Leiber & Stoller's "Appreciation" and "My Rival" and performing a duet with Presley on "C'mon Everybody," "The Lady Loves Me," and the title song, written by Doc Pomus and Mort Shuman. Another duet with Presley, "You're the Boss," was cut from the finished film. She had recorded studio versions of it, "The Lady Loves Me," and "Today, Tomorrow and Forever" (a Presley solo in the film) as duets with Presley, but those recordings were not issued at the time, and there was no soundtrack album, only an EP of Presley solo tracks. Thus, record buyers were denied the chance to buy copies of some of her most memorable musical performances.

RCA (which, of course, also had Elvis Presley under contract) seemed interested in promoting a very different Ann-Margret. The label paired her with middle-of-the-road singer John Gary on the duet album David Merrick Presents Hits from His Broadway Shows, released in October 1964 and in the charts for four weeks. And after three straight movie musicals, her film career took a false step with the poorly reviewed melodrama Kitten With a Whip, which also appeared in October 1964. Two months later, she was back in the theaters and the record stores with The Pleasure Seekers, a musical remake of Three Coins in the Fountain with a soundtrack album on which she also appeared.

As the release of three films within the calendar year of 1964 indicated, Ann-Margret was concentrating more on her film career than anything else, although she was willing to sing in her movies and fulfill the terms of her record contract. RCA didn't bother to have her make an album in 1965, restricting itself to one single, while she released three more non-musical movies, Bus Riley's Back in Town in March, Once a Thief in August, and The Cincinnati Kid in October. The next year brought four film releases. She starred in the comedy Made in Paris in February 1966 and had a featured role in the all-star remake of Stagecoach, released in May. She got to sing in The Swinger in November, leading to the release of her final RCA LP, Songs from "The Swinger" (And Other Swingin' Songs), and played opposite Dean Martin in his second Matt Helm spy spoof, Murderers' Row, in December.

By the end of 1966, Ann-Margret's career was in decline. Like some other performers, she was caught in the cultural changes of the 1960s. Still only 25 years old, she was the same age as Bob Dylan, but she had trained herself for a style of show business that seemed to be passing away. Movie studios were not much interested in making the kind of musicals at which she excelled, and she had made too many non-musicals in too short a time, too many of them failures. Meanwhile, rock had taken over popular music, dooming her recording career. And her sexy, show-business image did not appeal to a new, hip, long-haired generation. RCA released one more single in 1967 before allowing her contract to lapse. Her Hollywood film offers dried up. So, she took steps to retool her career. On May 8, 1967, she married television actor Roger Smith (77 Sunset Strip), who retired from performing to become her manager. In June 1967, she debuted as a Las Vegas headliner at the Riviera Hotel. And in December 1968, she starred in her first television special, The Ann-Margret Show. Meanwhile, film offers had continued to come in from overseas, and her next several movies were made in Europe, South America, and the Middle East. (In one, Rebus, she sang a couple of songs; a soundtrack album belatedly came out in Italy in 2001.)

Ann-Margret returned to recording in 1969 when she made The Cowboy & the Lady, a duo album with Lee Hazlewood, for LHI Records. A second television special, From Hollywood With Love, aired in December. Her first American movie role in years came with R.P.M., released in September 1970, and the following month she appeared in C.C. and Company, written and produced by her husband. (A soundtrack album was released featuring her recording of "Today," written by score composer Lenny Stack, which was also released as a single.) But the role that brought her back to prominence and brought her legitimacy as a serious actress was her featured part in director Mike Nichols' Carnal Knowledge, starring Jack Nicholson and Art Garfunkel, which opened in June 1971. It earned her her first Academy Award nomination for supporting actress and won her another Golden Globe. On November 15, 1971, she appeared in a television production of the musical Dames at Sea, resulting in a soundtrack album.

Meanwhile, Ann-Margret was continuing to perform her stage show in the Nevada showrooms. On September 10, 1972, she was severely injured when she fell from a faulty platform during her act at the Sahara Hotel in Lake Tahoe. Surgery and rehabilitation followed, but she was back to performing ten weeks later. That setback aside, she had successfully rebuilt her career by the mid-'70s, alternating film roles (in 1973, the Western The Train Robbers with John Wayne and the French crime thriller The Outside Man) with television specials and stage work. In March 1975, she returned to movie musicals in a big, and surprising, way in director Ken Russell's outrageous film treatment of the Who's concept album Tommy, playing the part of Tommy's mother. She was 33 years old; Who lead singer Roger Daltrey, who played Tommy, turned 31 just before the movie opened. She sang on more than a dozen songs in the all-singing film, including two duets with Daltrey, "Champagne" and "Mother and Son," newly written for the movie. The double-LP soundtrack album hit number two and went gold. She was nominated for her second Academy Award, this time for Best Actress, and won her third Golden Globe, for Best Actress -- Musical or Comedy.

In the second half of the 1970s, Ann-Margret continued to appear regularly on film, earning another Golden Globe nomination for Best Supporting Actress for 1977's Joseph Andrews, while also making TV specials and performing her act on-stage in Nevada and elsewhere. The rise of disco offered her another chance at the music business, however, and on October 27, 1979, her single "Love Rush," released on Ocean Records and later picked up by MCA, entered Billboard's disco/dance charts heading for a peak at number eight. MCA financed a five-track EP, released in 1980 as Ann-Margret, and from it came "Midnight Message," which entered the dance charts in March and peaked at number 12. Disco was petering out by 1980, but she managed one more chart placing, starting in October 1981 with "Everybody Needs Somebody Sometimes" on First American Records; it got to number 22.

Ann-Margret suffered a personal setback in 1980 when her husband was diagnosed with myasthenia gravis, a muscle-weakening nerve disease. She devoted more time to her family, helping to care for her husband and three stepchildren, but as the breadwinner in the family, she still had to work. She took more film roles in the early '80s, but cut down on performing her stage act, stopping completely by the end of 1983. Heretofore, she had avoided television movies, but her first one, a tearjerker called Who Will Love My Children? (about a mother of ten who contracts a fatal illness), was broadcast February 14, 1983; it earned her an Emmy nomination. In 1984, she had a more prestigious television appearance in an adaptation of Tennessee Williams' play A Streetcar Named Desire, playing the part of Blanche DuBois. The performance won her her fourth Golden Globe for Best Actress -- Mini-Series or Television Movie. She was able to return to performing on-stage in October 1988 when she began her first run at Caesar's Palace in Las Vegas in five years. She toured extensively over the next three years, culminating in her first appearance at New York's Radio City Music Hall in October 1991. In the spring of 1992, she appeared in Newsies, a movie musical for children produced by Walt Disney that didn't do much business but did have a soundtrack album that spent a week in the charts. For the rest of the 1990s, she worked steadily in feature films (e.g., Grumpy Old Men [1993] and Grumpier Old Men [1995]) and TV movies (e.g., the mini-series Scarlett, a sequel to Gone With the Wind [1994], and Life of the Party: The Pamela Harriman Story [1998], which earned her an Emmy nomination for Outstanding Actress in a Miniseries or TV Movie), while continuing to perform her stage act. She published a best-selling autobiography, Ann-Margret: My Story (written with Todd Gold) in 1994.

Ann-Margret continued to work steadily in the 21st century. For the 2000 film The Flintstones in Rock Vegas, she recalled her 1963 appearance on the TV version by singing "Viva Rock Vegas" on the soundtrack (and the soundtrack album, of course). In February 2001, she turned to musical theater for the first time (and returned to the stage for the first time in seven years), starring in a national touring company of the Broadway hit The Best Little Whorehouse in Texas and recording a cast album. Somewhat incongruously, in 2001, she released her first gospel album, God Is Love: The Gospel Sessions, accompanied by the Jordanaires (who had been on her first recordings 40 years earlier) and the Light Crust Doughboys with James Blackwood. The album earned her her first Grammy nomination for Best Southern, Country, or Bluegrass Gospel Album. After 18 months, she came off the road with The Best Little Whorehouse in Texas, but by early 2003 she had put together a new stage act and launched her first solo tour in a decade.

Detroit-born, Florida-raised, Dennis Yost came from a Jacksonville-area band called The Echoes. He was just old enough to remember '50s R&B when it was current. In addition to playing the drums, he liked to sing '50s numbers like The Five Satins'1 "In the Still of the Night."2 After The Echoes broke up in the mid-'60s, Yost joined a band called Leroy & the Moments, which included Wally Eaton (bass, vocals), James "J.R." Cobb, Jr. (guitar), and Joe Wilson (keyboards). His arrival, along with the changing times, also signaled a change in the group's name, as there was no longer a Leroy anyway, that could go, and the name, The Moments, was already taken, so, they named themselves after Yost's Classic-model drum set, and they became The Classics, at least for a short time.

Although they're considered a late-'60s phenomenon, owing to the chronology of their hits, the group can trace its roots back to R&B harmony, such as the doo wop music of the late '50s.

Their sound was extremely diverse by all accounts, they could cover3 most of Billboard Magazine's4 Top 405 note-for-note, which was ideal for audiences in Jacksonville but didn't necessarily give them much to work with as a recording act.

Part of their act included a tribute to The Four Seasons,6 who were still burning up the charts in those days. They were a lot alike in that both groups could sing anything and were also a virtually self-contained unit instrumentally.

When The Classics signed with Capitol Records in 1966, they made their debut with a song called "Pollyanna."7 The single was virtually a faux-Four Seasons record in style and sound, but it was just different and fresh enough that it might have done well, except for the fact that management of the actual Four Seasons took offense, and did their best to keep "Pollyanna"'s presence to a minimum on the New York airwaves. To top it off, the group was threatened with legal action by a Brooklyn-based vocal outfit already named The Classics,8a8b who had already charted a couple of singles, most notably a cover of "Blue Moon,"9 originally recorded as a ballad in 1949 by Mel Tormé,10 and popularized as a pop hit again in 1961, by The Marcels.11a11b

Thus, Florida's The Classics became Classics IV, and for all of that trouble, "Pollyanna" fizzled at #103 on the Billboard charts.

In January of 1967, they released a remake of The Diamonds'12 1950s hit, "Little Darlin'."13 Unfortunately, the timing wasn't right -- by this time oldie tunes were not in favor. Ironically, two years or so later, with the nostalgia craze starting to kick in, that might have been another story. The record was actually more important for its B-side, "Nothing to Lose."14 On it Cobb and Yost shared the lead and sounded much like Bill Medley and Bobby Hatfield of The Righteous Brothers15. While it didn't chart, it demonstrated their skill and the versatility of their voices.

By that time, the group had relocated to Atlanta. Their Capitol contract was over by the spring of 1967, and the following summer the group signed with Imperial Records, whose sound was more R&B. But Imperial was subsequently absorbed into Liberty Records.

In 1967 things started going the group's way. Buie and Cobb had heard and liked an instrumental entitled "Spooky" (a regional hit for saxophonist Mike Sharpe, aka: Mike Shapiro). They liked the music so Buie came up with words and Cobb came up with a new arrangement.

In September of 1967, the group released the song "Spooky,"16 with lyrics and it became their first national hit. Building slowly to a #3 (see note 5) on the "Hot 100" chart in the U.S., and #46 in the U.K., it sold over one million copies, and was awarded gold status by the RIAA.17

Cobb, along with Buie kept writing songs, and he occasionally arranged the group's music along with the official arranger, Emory Gordy. But, he gave up playing on-stage with the band, preferring the less draining life of a session guitarist, and was replaced in the lineup by Auburn Burrell. At the same time, Yost stepped up to the microphone full-time while Kim Venable took over on the drums. They were no longer, strictly speaking, the "Classics IV" not that it mattered much, as the band's lineup situation quickly got a lot more complicated.

As they were now a national-level act with an audience across a continent, it was decided by Buie and Imperial Records that there was no reason to limit themselves to the talents of the actual band members when it came to who performed on their records. In place of the regulars, apart from group alumnus Cobb, Classics IV's records soon began featuring some of Atlanta's top session musicians, among them drummer Robert Nix (who later performed with Lynyrd Skynyrd),18 while the touring membership included Dean Daughtry and Bill Gilmore on keyboards and bass, respectively, both members of the late Roy Orbison's19 band.

Despite all of these personnel shifts (not to mention a name change after they'd started recording), and armed with a bunch of Cobb/Buie songs, their 1968 debut album entitled Spooky, did fairly well. The only problem was that the sounds were too diverse, it was hard to pin down an identity for Classics IV.

Among top American groups, The Beach Boys,20 like Classics IV, relied on session musicians21 much of the time, but the difference was The Beach Boys always made sure Carl Wilson on guitar was there, and their voices were easily recognizable. Not so for Classics IV -- apart from Yost's singing, there wasn't a lot of unity in their sound and thus their next couple of singles, "Soul Train,"22 and "Mamas and Papas,"23 didn't do more than a fraction of the business done by "Spooky."

The group recorded a second LP, which failed to sell in any serious numbers, at least initially. One song from the album, entitled "Stormy,"24 was given a single release and suddenly in the fall of 1968, the group was back in the Top Five, with the song peaking at #5, and for the first time, they made the "Easy Listening" charts (see note 4).

In the winter of 1969 with "Traces,"25 another Cobb/Buie collaboration, this time with help from arranger Emory Gordy, made it all the way #2 on the Billboard "Hot 100" chart (see note 5).

At this point their singles, although they still made the "Pop" charts, were starting to place higher numbers on the "Easy Listening" charts. One example is the mid-1969 song, "Everyday with You Girl,"26 which reached #19 as a "Pop" single and #12 on the "Easy Listening" scene (see note 4).

Continuing to add to the confusion, in the new decade, the group changed its name so that they were now officially known Dennis Yost & The Classics IV. And in between official names, many of the songs were billed as Classics IV featuring Dennis Yost or The Classics IV featuring Dennis Yost.27

Their chart action declined throughout 1971 amid the changing tastes of the public, and the reorganization of their record label, Liberty Records, which merged with United Artists, and who made the environment in the studio inhospitable for the group.

Dennis Yost & The Classics IV shifted to MGM Records in 1972, and lasted through one album and a last pop hit, with "What Am I Crying For,"28 along with a string of attempts through 1975.

By that time, Cobb, Daughtry, and Buie had split off to form The Atlanta Rhythm Section (often referred to as just ARS).29 Also, Dennis Yost went solo, or tried to. Meanwhile, their ex-studio band, as The Atlanta Rhythm Section , enjoyed a new hit with a cover (see note 3) of "Spooky"30 in 1979, while Santana31 returned "Stormy"32 to the charts.

DENNIS YOST:

In time, Yost became a fixture on the oldies circuit alongside his one-time Imperial label-mate, Gary Lewis,33 and other denizens of the mid-'60s singles charts. Yost also wrote songs and became a producer, plus he secured the exclusive rights to the group name, and continued to perform into the early 21st century.

Yost was credited as the creator of the "Southern Soft Rock" sound, and was known as "the singer's singer," and "The Classic One" because of his smooth, unique voice. He was described as singing "with a tear in his voice."

Yost was inducted into The Georgia Music Hall of Fame34 in 1993, an honor he coveted most, because Ray Charles,35 his favorite singer, was inducted a few years before.

He continued to perform with Classics IV for the next thirty years. During the 1990s the lineup included Steve "Stevie G." Guettler (guitar and vocals), Jeff "JT" Strickler (bass guitar and vocals), Steve Farrell (guitar and vocals), Mike Wilson (keyboards and vocals) and Wes Armstrong (drums and vocals).

The final concert of Dennis Yost & The Classics IV was at Chenay Bay, St. Croix, Virgin Islands, on September 24, 2005.

On July 11, 2006, Yost fell down a flight of stairs and suffered a serious brain trauma. To assist Yost and his wife with their medical bills, a benefit concert was held on March 25, 2007, at Rhino's Live in Cincinnati, Ohio. The benefit was originally conceived by Yost's close friend Jon "Bowser" Bauman, former vocalist with Sha Na Na.36

Many musical entertainers and some surprise guests from the 1950s through the 1970s performed some of their biggest chart-topping hits in tribute to Yost. Some of the artists performing that day were Denny Laine from The Moody Blues37 and Chuck Negron previously of Three Dog Night,38 Ian Mitchell from Bay City Rollers,39 Pat Upton of Spiral Starecase,40 "Diamond" Dave Somerville from The Skyliners,41 Mark Vollman of The Turtles,42 & Classics IV guitarist Brian Correll. The concert was a huge boost for Yost to visit with so many old friends.

After Dennis' accident he chose his good friend, Tom Garrett,43 to replace him as lead singer for Classics IV. The plan was for Dennis to make a few yearly special appearances, and gradually have Tom take over as the leader of the band. However, his injuries were more extensive than he originally thought and Dennis was able to perform with them for only one appearance in 2008.

Before he died Yost and Garrett , worked closely together to develop the current line-up. The band Dennis chose, and one that continues with the Classics IV latest lineup is: Tom Garrett (lead vocals), Kevin Lloyd (bass guitar), Tim Ridgeway (drums), Joe Sadler (guitar), Garard Motague III (sax & flute) and James Yoder (keyboards).

Dennis Yost died at the age of 65, on December 7, 2008.

Dennis Yost & Classics IV, The - Song ‎

1.Where Did All The Good Times Go (02:35) 2.Nobody Loves You But Me (03:18) 3.God Knows I Loved Her (03:06) 4.The Funniest Thing (02:42) 5.Ain't It The Truth (03:51) 6.Pick Up The Pieces (03:12) 7.Cherryhill Park (03:16)8.We Miss You (02:24) 9.Most Of All (03:09)10.The Comic (02:22) 11.Midnight (02:57)

1990 / The Very Best of Classics IV / Capitol Records #91472.1992 / The Greatest Hits / EMI Special Products #57402.2002 / Best Of Dennis Yost & The Classics IV / Taragon Records #1091.2011 / A New Horizon / Classics IV Records, available in CD and digital download formats. This is the group’s first album in 20 years.SOUNTRACKS:

* 2004 / "Spooky" was featured in the soundtrack of and episode of Six Feet Under an HBO television series.

Drummer Rich Legault, bassist Denny Lewan, singer/guitarist Mike Peace and rhythm guitarist Ben Wiesneiwski were all members of the Wisconsin-based Attila and the Huns. Formed in 1964, the band became quite popular on the local dance and club circuit, eventually releasing a self-financed 45 "CHERYL" and "THE LONELY HUNS" on the Sara label. In 1967 the band placed second in a local battle of the bands contest and caught the attention of businessman/manager/producer Lennie LaCour.

Singer/guitarist Mike Peace picks up the narrative: "Lennie was a gimmick kind of guy, who had his success in show biz due to an Orange Crush commercial that he sang vocals on as an artist know as the "Big Rocker". He was always trying to catch a trend or some bandwagon to ride along with it. The Hula Hoop was enjoying a big come back around 1968 so... the first release he did with us while were were still working as Attila and the Huns was a song called 'Hula Shake' which he wrote about a "new dance sensation that was sweeping the nation called the Hula Shake". It was such a contrived concept that it didn't stand a chance in the marketplace. I wrote the flip side 'Hurry Back', but Lennie didn't give me any writer credit for it. The 45 only shows his name as writer. This was by far the better of the two songs but it wasn't the push side of the record.

LaCour managed to get Chess Records interested in Attila and the Huns. Under his tutelage the company financed some recording sessions in the Chess Studio and even prepared cover art for a projected album, but nothing came of the deal.

Chess wouldn't release the album so Lennie had to buy the license rights to his own production. This was the original cover that was designed for Chess, but since they did not want to release it at the time, Lennie bought the license rights from Chess. The cost of a color cover was above his budget and he convinced us to change our names to "The Filet of Soul" so the cover was made black and white and the new name tacked on top of the old picture. This photo won a photographers blue ribbon at the Indian Head Photographers Convention around 1971. I set up a camera and shot the photo on an auto time shutter release setting.

Released by LaCour's Dynamic Records label 1969's blue-eyed soul single "Sweet Lovin'' b/w "Do Your Own Thing" (Dynamic catalog number 1002) was Lennie's next release for us and served as our debut under the new name 'Filet of Soul' - also Lennie's idea. This one was an immediate local Wisconsin hit. I remember driving to a gig and hearing "Sweet Lovin'' playing on my car radio. I had my radio buttons tuned for three local stations that I knew had our record. I was driving alone and out of curiosity I switched to WSTP Stevenspoint to discover they were playing it at the same time. WMRL Merril was the other station so I pushed that button to find it was also playing the song. I was bouncing up and down on my car seat and was so excited that I had to pull off the road, honk my horn and scream at the top of my lungs. I was sure that we would be appearing on the Ed Sullivan show next but it turned out that Lennie hadn't bothered to secure any kind of record distribution deals so record sales simply didn't happen. Turns out that Lennie believed that if a song was "hot" enough the distributors would contact him. But bigger stations were extremely reluctant to play records that didn't have distribution agreements since sales were what showed a song was hot. He had good intentions but not enough marketing savvy to help The Filet of Soul make it.

While the single did outside of the local area, LaCour signed the band to his own Magic Touch label, financing another release - 1969's 'Proud Mary' b/w (Get Out, Get Out) We Want Peace' (Magic Touch catalog number 2078). Like the debut their sophomore release did nothing commercially, but LaCour continued to support the band, financing an album on his small Chicago-based Moniquid Records.

"... Filet Of Soul very quickly developed their own sort of orientation with self-penned songs from a simple love ballad typed garage and 60s style with a good feeling for rhythm, also with the guitars to a whole diversity of common styles of the 60s with influences ranging from the twist era over The Beatles and even James Brown in two songs, all with something of their roots of inspirations coming through intact. Their roots, love songs and light but slightly raw groove makes their sound attractive and accessible. We hear all what is needed to make them a very enjoyable band....

...Filet of Soul - Freedom CD. Reissue of very rare 1969 low-fi private press rock record from the Chicago area ex-Attila and the Huns group. Released by the band themselves after beging rejected by Chess records....

...The great Chicago blues/psychedelic band that mixed Chicago blues with the prevalent Psychedelic sounds of the late 60's on the rare and classic 1969 LP Freedom. Produced by Lenny LaCour, Co-owner of Chess Studios, this reissue brings forth the great talent of Mike Peace, formerly of The Huns. From the master tapes... "